His appointment as Boro’s player-manager in May 1994 was a huge coup for the club and its ambitious chairman Steve Gibson.

A former England and Manchester United captain, the then 37-year-old proved an inspirational choice, guiding the club out of the second tier and into the Premiership – and a brand new stadium - before reaching three Wembley finals.

With Gibson’s financial backing, Robson’s global reputation as an outstanding player opened doors, enabling him to pull off remarkable signings including Juninho, Fabrizio Ravanelli and Alen Boksic, breaking the club’s transfer record on several occasions.

There were downs as well as ups, though, including the infamous ‘three points’ saga, after Boro failed to fulfil a fixture at Blackburn, subsequently followed by relegation in 1997, and a catastrophic dip in form that led to the appointment of Terry Venables as a co-manager in December 2000, a move that ultimately contributed to Robson’s departure six months later.

But, he left a club that had been transformed funder his leadership, boasted an international profile, a fine stadium and a state of the art training ground.

Gazette Boro writer Philip Tallentire asked him about all this and more when he caught up with Robson for an in-depth interview at Rockliffe Hall Hotel.

Philip Tallentire: How much of an influence was the fact that Boro were planning to build a new stadium in your decision to become the club’s player-manager?

Bryan Robson: “I knew that the Boro had a hardcore average of 16,000 to 18,000 fans at that time and they proved that because they were mid-table, or just below, the year before with Lennie (Lawrence) and I noticed that the average was about 14,500-15,000.

“So I thought if we went on a good run we can definitely take that up to 24,000, which is what actually happened. But I didn’t realise if you give them so much success the area also got behind the team and we did start filling a 30,000-seater stadium, I didn’t realise that might be the case.

“I thought we would go to 24,000 and that would be the peak. But we were filling the stadium and that’s why everyone enjoyed it so much at that time because we a great atmosphere at the stadium and we had quite a lot of success.”

PT: After winning promotion, you made a massive statement of intent by signing Nicky Barmby from Tottenham, who was at that time a young, full England international. When did you first realise you’d be able to go into the market for a player like that?

BR: “Steve’s really open-minded and he said to me what did I think we needed?

“I said to him, ‘well, if you are going to give me decent money, I want sign younger players where there’s value in them so if anything happens and we do get relegated we can sell them on again’.

“Steve showed his confidence in me when he gave me the £5m to sign Nicky Barmby. So we went from there to a point where you’ve got to take a few risks if you want to try and stay in the Premiership.”

PT: Was it Brazil’s game against England in the 1995 Umbro Cup that convinced you to sign Juninho or did you know about him anyway?

BR: “No, I didn’t know about him, not until that competition. But then we got a few videos sent of him playing for Sao Paulo so we kept watching them and he had great ability, great energy levels, fantastic acceleration with the ball and that’s why I really liked him.”

PT: What was it like flying into Sao Paulo to negotiate the deal? Clubs sign players from all over the world now but back then that was a real journey into the unknown.

BR: “It was a good trip. Myself and Keith had to spend quite a few days convincing Sao Paulo to sell Juninho because they are not just a football club, they are a sports club, so you’ve got these people on the board connected with the basketball club, hockey club, athletics club, all these people.

“You’re not just dealing with two board members or the owner of the club, you’re dealing with about 20 people, so you’ve got to convince 20 people that it’s a good deal for them to sell one of their best young players.

“So it took us about four says to convince them to sell them and we started off at $2m or $2.5m and we had to go to 4.75m US Dollars to actually get him.”

PT: Were you having to make regular calls back to England to ask Steve Gibson for more money?

BR: “We’d planned quite well. What Keith had done is we had prepared contracts from $2.5m up to $5m. We knew that we didn’t want to fall short on the contracts so they were all done (in advance). Keith had to go in with a contract and keep going up to try and convince them.

Bryan Robson is unveiled as the new manager for Middlesbrough on 18th May 1994

“But then every time we were going to go up to another bid we had to phone Steve, obviously, and say ‘this is what it is now’ and it ended up going up to $4.75m.”

PT: In 1995/96 you were doing well up to Christmas and then dropped off, was that inevitable considering it was your first season after promotion?

BR: “It’s always difficult when you get promoted to stay in the division. Because you can’t change half the team, you can only add two or three players with real quality because you just can’t afford to go out and but six or seven players who are all Premiership players.

“But the lads did well that year, they worked really hard for each other and we did what we wanted to do which was to stay in the Premiership and that gives you the resources to add another two or three players, which is what we really did.”

BR: “Yes, Steve was brave enough to go for it. What I always said to Steve is ‘you buy these players and, okay you are spending a lot of money on them, but if you buy them at the right age, even if the team isn’t successful, as long as they are successful you will always get your money back’.

“I always say, in a manager’s career, you are judged a lot by the players that you bring in because if they are rubbish, then you are going to have a rubbish team, if they are good, you are going to have a good team.

“And that’s how I look at the scouting side of management.”

PT: There seemed to be some jealousy from sections of the London-based press about Boro signing players like Juninho and Ravanelli?

BR: “They didn’t want me to succeed. They definitely didn’t. They kept mentioning that Bobby Moore was a great player, Bobby Charlton was a great player but they were never great managers. So they had that on me right from the start.”

Juninho at his Riverside unveiling as Bryan Robson looks on

PT: Was it a London press agenda?

“Yes because the North-east media were pretty good because they were happy that we were getting players to come to the North-east because the North-east gets knocked. People say ‘players won’t go there because it’s freezing cold and it’s windy’ so the southern press would always hype that up.”

PT: Why do you think Boro went down in 1997?

BR: “I always say when we talk about the success in the cups, the cups got us relegated.

“The squad was too small to handle all those games and that’s why we got those injuries, the lads were jaded towards the end of the season.

“We had replays in the semi-final, we had a replay in the final and if you look back at the record, after almost every big cup game we got beat 1-0 because the lads just couldn’t raise the energy to actually get a goal to get us those points.”

PT: You were a young manager then, looking back with the benefit of hindsight is there anything you would have done differently?

BR: “I wouldn’t have. I mean, early on in the League Cup I was playing a lot of the squad players but we kept winning. Once you get to the quarter-finals you go out to win. You don’t realise that you’re going to be so successful in the other cup competition and so you’ve just got to try and give certain players a rest but you’ve always got to try and win the game and your thoughts are always on trying to win it.

“We kept winning and in the end I think it cost us our league position.

“It’s a shame because if we’d stayed in the Premiership, Ravanelli would have stayed, Emerson would have stayed, Juninho would have stayed and we could have built on them.”

PT: There were several stories in the press focusing on Ravanelli’s discontent and Emerson’s issues, was that a distraction?

BR: “No it’s not really a distraction. It’s something you can do without but it wasn’t a distraction and that’s why the lads (as individuals) were pretty successful.

“As individual players they did very well, but you’re always going have little bits of problems around a football club, that’s the hassle that goes with being the manager of every football club, you are always going to have a few problems.

“It’s about how you handle those problems and get the best out of your players.”

PT: The three points saga, when you look back what are your thoughts on it?

BR: “Well the Premier League were a joke, it was as simple as that. Keith Lamb tried to get in touch with them. From our messages they were all out and there was nobody who could make a decision.

“Keith thought that we would just get a fine but in the end they took the three points off us.

“If somebody had told us that at the time then I would have just played a team of kids. Something like 24 players we had missing from the reserves and the first team, who the doctor had to do a report on every single one of them, so he wasted his time by doing the report because they obviously didn’t believe the report.”

PT: Was is a sickness bug, a flu bug?

BR: “We had loads of injuries and then we had like a bug going around the place which hit four or five of the players. So that’s why we were short. And we said it’s not fair on the fans or the Premiership playing a bunch of kids and I could only fill the bench with kids.”

PT: What sort of team would you have put out if you’d played that game?

BR: “We just ran short of defenders, so I would have had to play somebody like Emerson. I think there was only Juninho and Emerson (fit), Ravanelli had the bug, so there was hardly any of the first team players available. And to add salt to the wounds, even me and Viv (Anderson) were injured so we couldn’t even play.”

PT: You were so close to beating Leicester and winning the League Cup and qualifying for Europe, how do you reflect on that game?

BR: “That’s my biggest disappointment in the whole of my Boro career, that last minute goal, because we were battering them in extra time and we were in control of the game and all they did was throw one high ball in and Heskey out-jumps (Schwarzer) and they score a goal.

Curtis Fleming

“And then we had some great chances in the replay and they get a goal out of nothing so that’s my biggest disappointment we didn’t win that cup final at Wembley because we deserved to, we were by far the better team.”

PT: You had to win the game at Leeds to stay up, it’s fair to say the players gave you everything on the day?

BR: “They did, but we’d played a (FA Cup) semi-final, that kind of thing, and it takes it out of you.

“For me, the players that season gave it absolutely everything and you can’t blame the players for being relegated. The squad was really small and you’re relying on the same players all the time.”

PT: It must have been tough to play the FA Cup final against Chelsea at Wembley after being relegated?

BR: “It was. Trying to build the lads’ confidence up. They did well in that game after everything they’d been through.”

PT: What did you and Steve Gibson talk about in terms of your plans for winning promotion?

BR: “The issue was there was a World Cup coming up (in 1998) so straight away the Brazilian lads and Ravanelli came in and said, if they play in the Championship leading up to the World Cup, they didn’t think they’ll get in the squad because they’re playing in the Championship, which you can understand.

“So I had a conversation with Steve where I went ‘if they don’t want to be here, as long as we get the money for them, then we take the money, but if we want to replace players like that you need to give me a bit of money to replace them if we are going straight back up’.”

PT: You went out and signed Paul Merson. He was a brilliant buy, wasn’t he?

BR: “Yes, Merse was terrific. But there again Steve was brave, he gave me £5m for him and then Andy Townsend was a real good signing, Neil Maddison, both of them good strong characters, great lads, good trainers, good pros, so the rest of the boys liked them.

"They liked those lads because of their characters.”

Magic Man Paul Merson was the catalyst as Boro stormed back into the top flight at the end of the 1997-98 season

PT: You couldn’t see a player like Paul Merson stepping down to the Championship in this day and age, could you?

BR: “I think Merse did it because he knew me, we’d played against each other and then, with England, he knew me.

“When I was talking to Merse, I said to him ‘you need to be playing first team football, you can’t be sitting on the bench all the time’. I knew what great qualities Merse had as a player and I just said ‘I think we’ll get promoted if I can get the players I want and keep the (current) squad, which I am, I’m really confident we’ll go up’.”

PT: You had another cup run in the 1997/98 season including a memorable win over Liverpool at the Riverside. That must have been special, knocking out a Premiership side in the semi-finals?

BR: “I think that’s probably one of my best wins being manager at Boro. Especially when you look at their team, Jamie Redknapp, McManaman, Fowler, all of those lads.

PT: Reaching a third Wembley final inside a year, that was a big deal?

BR: “It was, and the lads did well getting them to extra-time because Chelsea were a decent side at that time so it was a great season.

“When you start the season after relegation the players are a bit despondent so you’ve got to make sure that you get them up for the challenge again.”

PT: Was your approach different after winning promotion in terms of the type of players you wanted to sign?

BR: “Yes it was. I just thought I didn’t want to get relegated again so I wanted more British experienced players to go with the squad I had rather than go down the way of real flair.

“What I wanted to do was try and build a squad of players who knew what it’s all about in the British league and then, if everything goes well for a couple of years, go and hit the market when the squad’s strong, hit the market for top players.”

BR: “Well it was because John Pickering unfortunately passed away. Then Gordon McQueen, he needed his ankle fused, so Gordon couldn’t do any coaching.

Bryan Robson and Terry Venables (Image: PA)

“So I was doing a lot of the work myself and I needed somebody, so I approached Brian Kidd, Archie Knox, who I’d worked with at Man United, and the two of them said no, they couldn’t do it, so I wanted a quick fix.

“I’d worked with Terry, I worked really well with Terry in the England squad and when I said to Steve ‘look I’m thinking of approaching Terry because I think he’d be good for me, good for the lads and the most important thing is that we stay up and I think his experience will help that’. So that’s why I made that decision.”

PT: But it was a brave decision to bring in such a high profile coach/manager? Venables wasn’t just a run of the mill coach, he was a former Barcelona and England manager!

“Yes, that’s right, but I knew Terry was a good coach, he has a good manner with players.

“And, to be fair, he didn’t really coach the team at all because he’d go back down to London and I would take the coaching.

“But that’s why I allowed Terry to do the media because I was doing all the coaching and preparing the lads. But, for me, yes people say 'that’s what got you the sack’ but I was just pleased we had a good run towards the end of the season and we stayed up because I didn’t want to undo all the good work myself and Steve had done at the club.”

Where are they now?

PT: When you left, did you feel seven years was long enough at one club, that things had come to a natural conclusion?

BR: “I don’t think so, not when you look at somebody like Sir Alex Ferguson. I think I left the club in a good way because when I moved I think Steve McClaren spent something like £35m when he came in, so that means the club was in a good financial position.

“When Steve McClaren came in he could go out and buy people like Gareth Southgate and the Italian forward (Massimo Maccarone).

“I always look at that and think ‘well I’ve left the club in a good position because of everything I’ve done’ and it was a decent squad and Steve spent £35m when he came in so I had no problems with that.”

PT: It wasn’t a majority by any stretch, but did the criticism you got from some fans hurt after the final home game of the 2000/01 season at the Riverside?

BR: “Yes, you don’t like criticism but that’s what happens in football and it was a section of the fans but all the rest of the fans were booing them for doing what they did but, hey, it’s football and you got to be hard skinned.”

PT: How do you look back on your time at Middlesbrough, is it with fondness?

BR: “Yes. Look it was a great education for me, it was a good period in my career. As a manager going to three cup finals, the promotions – relegation, I don’t like remembering but it happens and it makes you a better manager and a better person – it was good times.

“The one thing I really enjoyed about it as well was that I speak to managers throughout the country and they go to these board meetings at certain clubs and there’s 10 guys around the table and they just make it a nightmare board meeting. I just used to go out with Steve and Keith Lamb, nice relaxed meal and we’d sit and talk about the club and that was our board meeting.”